1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to telephone communication systems and devices, and more particularly a teleconferencing system that enables conversation between subgroups of a teleconference.
2. Description of Related Art
Teleconferencing systems are presently in widespread use in both private and public telephone systems, including wireless telephone systems. Such systems range from three-way calling services available to most residential and business telephone connection points to large-scale conferencing systems to which parties must dial in, be connected by administrators or are conducted on private branch exchanges (PBXs) for use within a building or business network.
While teleconferencing as it exists today provides a powerful service in that meetings can be conducted virtually rather than requiring a physical gathering, there are disadvantages to a typical teleconference in that side conversations are not enabled and therefore must typically be postponed until after the teleconference is over, or two or more parties must leave the teleconference and establish another communication unless they are in the same physical location.
Security is also critical in some teleconferences, as business and legal interests may be at stake. Therefore, existing teleconferencing systems that are accessible via the public telephone networks often provide verification of the identity of conferencing parties before establishing a connection between them.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and system for providing side conversations during a teleconference. It would further be desirable to provide a mechanism for providing security to ensure that the side conversations are not heard by parties to the main teleconference and so that unauthorized others are not able to hear or participate in the side conversations.